JERUSALEM — When Chelsea, the London soccer team, defeated Manchester United to win Britain’s FA Cup 10 days ago, the club’s billionaire Russian owner, Roman A. Abramovich, was nowhere to be seen among the celebrants, prompting speculation that the government was holding up his application for a visa extension.
On Monday, Mr. Abramovich finally surfaced — in Israel, where he apparently immigrated under the law of return, which guarantees citizenship to any Jew wanting to move here.
The British authorities have not publicly commented on Mr. Abramovich’s visa issues, but Prime Minister Theresa May has blamed Moscow for an attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in England. She threatened to take action against wealthy Russians who benefit from their ties to President Vladimir V. Putin.
Russia has denied any involvement in the March attack on the retired spy, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal. The two were poisoned in Salisbury, England, with the nerve agent Novichok, a chemical weapon developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.
The poisoning set off a diplomatic clash between Russia and the West. The Skripals have since been released from the hospital and are recovering.
Upon his arrival in Israel, Mr. Abramovich instantly became Israel’s wealthiest man. The Russian oligarch, with a fortune estimated at more than $10 billion, would have advantages in retaining that title: The Times of Israel reported that as a new citizen, Mr. Abramovich is exempt from taxes on income earned abroad for 10 years. He also is not required to declare the sources of that income for 10 years.
Those advantages, which may have also encouraged Mr. Abramovich to become an Israeli, come thanks to a controversial 2008 law. Proponents said it was intended to encourage immigration to Israel by Jews, but critics said would entice oligarchs and others to move to Israel with their ill-gotten gains, no questions asked.
A spokesman for Nativ, the Liaison Bureau, which manages immigration to Israel from Russian-speaking countries, told Israel’s Channel 10 that Mr. Abramovich had applied for citizenship last week.
“Roman Abramovich arrived at the Israeli Embassy in Moscow like any other person,” the spokesman told the station. “He filed a request to receive an immigration permit, his documents were checked according to the law of return and he was indeed found eligible.”
His arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport was not so typical: He landed in a private Gulfstream jet, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The Interior Ministry confirmed only that he had entered the country, saying citizenship applications were a private matter.
Mr. Abramovich had already acquired an atypical residence in Israel. In 2015, he paid about $28 million for a former hotel in the wealthy Neve Tzedek section Tel Aviv. He bought it from two brothers, one of them the husband of the actress Gal Gadot, star of “Wonder Woman.”
In Britain, Mr. Abramovich had an investor visa — valid for three years and four months and normally extended every two years — which expired at the end of April.
But diplomatic relations between Britain and Russia plummeted after the Skripal poisonings, which Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said had probably been personally ordered by Mr. Putin. The poisonings prompted more than 20 countries to expel more than 100 Russian diplomats and intelligence officers. In return, Russia expelled an equal number of foreign diplomats.
Mr. Johnson suggested last week that the British government might take further action “to crack down on people close to Putin who may have illicit or ill-gotten wealth.”
Mr. Abramovich is seen by many as a Putin friend. Mr. Putin, who has ravaged businesses of critical Russian tycoons, has not touched Mr. Abramovich’s Russian businesses, which include oil and other interests.
But in Chelsea, he was a celebrity sports hero, hailed for his spending on top soccer players that has made the Chelsea team a soccer powerhouse.
Source : Nytimes
